Councillor calling on authority to compensate casual traders

A SOUTH Dublin County Councillor is calling on the local authority to compensate casual traders for their lack of trading opportunities in 2020.

The call comes after the council revealed it would not be refunding some of the annual casual trading license fees or compensating traders for not being able to operate for large portions of 2020.

Sinn Fein councillor for Clondalkin William Carey says he wants the council “to offer some form of respite to casual traders in the renewal of their annual fees.”

Carey tabled a question to the chief executive of the council at January’s council meeting, asking for some financial support to casual traders.

In its response, the council said “throughout the year, South Dublin County Council engaged with casual traders that hold licences in respect of the council’s designated casual trading areas.

“The council will continue to engage with licence holders with a view to facilitating their continued trading in a safe manner, subject to compliance with relevant national guidance in relation to Covid 19 Pandemic.”

However, the council said it would not be offering respite to casual traders as it says “there was limited impact on their ability to trade.

“It is not proposed to compensate casual trading licence holders specifically.”

The council also said that “extensive supports are available from the SDCC Local Enterprise Office for small businesses in the county.”

Casual traders in the county are divided into five categories: Flowers, Mobile Food Outlets, Markets, Car Parks within Public Parks (usually ice cream vendors) and Seasonal Trading.

To obtain a casual trading license in the county, an interested person must apply via an application form and pay an annual fee to the council.

This fee varies in cost according to the trading license the person wants to apply for.

To be allowed sell flowers at one of the three cemeteries in the county, you must pay €500 for the annual license while a license to operate mobile food outlet at one of three specific locations will cost €760 for the year.

However, the most expensive casual trading license to purchase in the county is for selling ice cream in car parks of public parks.

A license to sell ice cream in the car park at Griffeen Valley Park will cost you €5,000 for the year while the same license will cost you €10,000 if you want to operate at the Wellington entrance of Tymon Park or the Camac Valley entrance of Corkagh Park.

Carey says that he wants SDCC to follow Dublin City Council’s lead by cutting the cost of license fees for 2021.

“I have spoken to a representative of the Irish Organisation of Market & Street Traders (IOMST) who confirmed that Dublin City Council had reduced their annual fees by 50% for the coming year as a result of representation they had made”.

Carey said that the South Dublin County Council response was “not acceptable” and that he will putting a motion down to address the matter.

“It is simply not good enough to expect traders to continue paying for a license when they cannot trade.”